Hill giants are stealing all the grain and livestock they can while stone giants have been scouring settlements that have been around forever. Fire giants are press-ganging the smallfolk into the desert, while frost giant longships have been pillaging along the Sword Coast. Even the elusive cloud giants have been witnessed, their wondrous floating cities appearing above Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate. Where is the storm giant King Hekaton, who is tasked with keeping order among the giants?

The humans, dwarves, elves, and other small folk of the Sword Coast will be crushed underfoot from the onslaught of these giant foes. The only chance at survival is for the small folk to work together to investigate this invasion and harness the power of rune magic, the giants’ weapon against their ancient enemy the dragons. The only way the people of Faerun can restore order is to use the giants’ own power against them.

I am intrigued by the rune magic. What do you guys think? How have you liked the other adventures of 5E so far?

"Show some respect!" the draegloth thundered. "You adress High Priestess Quenthel Baenre, Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, Mistress of the Academy, Mistress of Tier Breche, First Sister of House Baenre of Menzoberranzan... you insolent dog!"

Why must there be a "world-shattering" cataclysm where gigantic (or demonic, or draconic, or Drowdonic) monsters rampage and tear apart the Sword Coast every single year? Are they really this bankrupt of any new ideas? Same old crap every time.

Giants and their minions rampage and stomp on the Sword Coast. Heroes needed, or everyone dies.

Tiamat and her dragon hordes and minions rampage and stomp on the Sword Coast. Heroes needed, or everyone dies.

Elemental Princes and their minions rampage and stomp on the Sword Coast. Heroes needed, or everyone dies.

Curse of Strahd is the only recent adventure that interests me because it broke from the above cliche.

Because they have to do their tie-ins with their MMO. And MMOs just lend themselves to that kind of story, with raids and instances filled with uber-nastybads that require a large number of insanely powerful people to be taken down.

The Rune magic interests me, but I wasn't floored with the playtest rune magic. This book is a wait & see for me. Like others have pointed out, they've gone too "big," in the scope of the last few campaigns.

They should learn more from Cubicle7's One Ring. They should do smaller adventures with more realistic/simplistic things at stake. They already took a lot from that setting but I don't understand either why every adventure has to be giantly epic.

"Show some respect!" the draegloth thundered. "You adress High Priestess Quenthel Baenre, Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, Mistress of the Academy, Mistress of Tier Breche, First Sister of House Baenre of Menzoberranzan... you insolent dog!"

Because they have to do their tie-ins with their MMO. And MMOs just lend themselves to that kind of story, with raids and instances filled with uber-nastybads that require a large number of insanely powerful people to be taken down.

I still recommend giving it a chance. The aggravating cliche premise is certainly not a good start, but I have (probably naive) hope in my favorite setting. As long as nothing leads to an upheaval in magic that changes the rule system for a 5th time - I'm giving it a chance.

If there is, in fact, some worthwhile giant lore (a big interest of mine) included, I might end up truly enjoying this product.

All "Maztica Alive" products can be found below, linked to the campaign guide.

I still recommend giving it a chance. The aggravating cliche premise is certainly not a good start, but I have (probably naive) hope in my favorite setting. As long as nothing leads to an upheaval in magic that changes the rule system for a 5th time - I'm giving it a chance.

If there is, in fact, some worthwhile giant lore (a big interest of mine) included, I might end up truly enjoying this product.

You might find more giant-related lore in the upcoming ''Volo's guide to Monster'' book, rather than there. Their FR APs have been rather poor when it comes to lore, so far (as far as I have seen, that is).

I've tried it once, briefly, and I found it a repetitive grindfest (the fact that you could only choose 5 abilities or so at any time made it even more repetitive).

MMOs aren't really my kind of games (actually, I don't really play VG anymore, except titles that really grab my interest), but I might give it another chance, if it has changed. Was it updated to the current lore? Is it still grind-heavy?

This make me think if anyone know of any other styles of adventures on DM Guild for example. I would like to see some stuff from our own Scribes of Candlekeep and how they come up with stuff

"Show some respect!" the draegloth thundered. "You adress High Priestess Quenthel Baenre, Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, Mistress of the Academy, Mistress of Tier Breche, First Sister of House Baenre of Menzoberranzan... you insolent dog!"

Im not doing an adventure at the moment (im in sourcebook mode this year), but the ones i have thought about have been regional shaking events (im ashamed to say). The return of kazgoroth as a playable adventure, the rise and fall and rise again of the witch king, the rage of dragons, the silence of lolth, the return of shade.

All of them are to be playable versions of events that ignore the novels and allow the players to solve the RSEs. The difference is they are lore heavy providing in game lore based reasons for the events (rather than wotc says so).

Id never considered a smaller adventure style but thats because im a dm and i prefer long running campaigns.

"These things also I have observed: that knowledge of our world isto be nurtured like a precious flower, for it is the most preciousthing we have. Wherefore guard the word written and heedwords unwritten and set them down ere they fade . . . Learnthen, well, the arts of reading, writing, and listening true, and theywill lead you to the greatest art of all: understanding."Alaundo of Candlekeep

A long while back, I read an article that said WotC was looking at other classic modules to update. Greyhawk was mentioned along with Ravenloft. The Ravenloft project became the Curse of Strahd book. So they may crank out some material intended for Greyhawk at some point in the future.

It was certainly nice in the halcyon days of 2e when there were project schedules that forecast what and when would be released.

"Show some respect!" the draegloth thundered. "You adress High Priestess Quenthel Baenre, Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, Mistress of the Academy, Mistress of Tier Breche, First Sister of House Baenre of Menzoberranzan... you insolent dog!"

You mean, the only chance of survival is for the "player factions" to work together ... etc etc.

Under the enlightened guidance of Friends of the People, of course.

quote: Because, as always, the Emerald Enclave is fascinated by what is happening on the Sword Coast.

Em- What? You mean, somehow no one exterminated the Fantasy PETA like a pack of rabid dogs (/mass murderers/bandits disrupting trade/usurpers/pawns of Evermeet/agents of Yuan-ti/pals of those Luthcheq loons/heretics/enemies of faith/dishonourable rabble/unwashed barbarians/__, underline the preferred target selection method or write in another one) yet? Even after their attempts to encroach on Heartlands?Well, now it just gets ridiculous.

Well ive had a quick read through and as a sourcebook SKT is not all that bad. Its better than the Netheril boxed set.

As an adventure its not for me. I still have no interest in 5e.

The lore however has some interesting bits.

I like the idea of Maelstrom as a storm giant kingdom. I dont like the storm giants as rulers of all giants (the premise of ruling over disparate and isolated peoples where the only things in common is that they have the same gods, race, and came from the same empire 20000 years ago, its like having a king of all humans).

I also dont like that the wyrmskull throne was sold to them. Im pretty sure the item teleported away at random if used by someone not attuned to it. To have the adventurers sell it was a bit of a lame tie in.

The earth primordial beneath the grey peaks is an interesting idea but perhaps misplaced. I think ammarindar might have noticed an evil earth primordial in the middle of its realm. It would be better placed in the greycloak hills since the elves were guarding some unspecified thing there with evereska and their other colonies.

The eye of annam and other new giant places like the icebergs and the forge are good and present opportunities to develop northmen history.

The best bit however is an addition to the history of the north that may not have been considered before.

After the fall of netheril when the uthgardt were forming the barbarians took up residence in the savage frontier but who lived there at the time. SKT implies that the uthgardt took the land from the giants (all the mounds have giant relics in like burying your heroes with their war trophies).

So the elven and dwarven empires of the north begin to shrink and collapse. The giants swoop down to establish themselves in the open terrain where the forests had been cleared. Then along came the humans and pushed the giants out again.

Its something i actually like.

Quite a bit of potential with the lore in some places. Needs a lot of work though.

Definitely not worth the money they are asking, but thats because i wouldny use half of it because its an adventure.

Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.

"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises

Especially since the throne teleports randomly if misused. How did adventurers get it to the giants. What did they buy it with. Why would they buy it. How would the adventurers know the giants wanted the throne (its not as if you can carry it around in your pocket).